Random thoughts while multitasking my way through life

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Tag Archives: relaxation

For the past two weeks I’ve been working fairly non-stop on a redecorating project. Today though, I needed a break and needed to laugh. My choice was to watch Simon Pegg’s Cornetto Trilogy of movies. We started with Shaun of the Dead, continued with Hot Fuzz and finished the it off with The World’s End. I’ve seen Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz several times before and totally loved them. I was not disappointed with The World’s End, it was more of the same funny action and adventure.

It was a well needed break and I am really thankful. I am ready to get back to my project and everything else that needs to be done this week. Here’s hoping everyone has a successful week!

It’s Friday and as usual Boo and I are heading over to Gramma’s house. We met Sully for lunch at Lucille’s BBQ, the food was great but it was freezing in there. Essentially that’s a good thing because it means that the weather has cooled down. We got a bit of rain early this morning which added a slight, and I mean minuscule, chill to the air. I was happy about it, Sully not so much.

He’s okay with cool weather, it’s the rain that’s got him a little buggy. Apparently rain on the new car is the most awful thing that could have happened, ok, not that bad. There was a lot of drama this morning though before Sully left for work. It’s supposed to rain some more over the weekend so I am prepared for more drama but I am expecting his coping skills to kick in by then. I suppose I should stop teasing Sully. He’s allowed to be a bit hyper about his new car.

Anyway, after lunch Gramma, Boo and I went back to Gramma’s house and caught up on episodes of Project Runway. We are all caught up on Season 10 and even know who won now. Of course, we found out that Project Runway – All Stars started their second season so we are already behind on that one. Oh well, a couple of Fridays and we will be all set.

Today, I am thankful for my family and for having a day to enjoy them. I am very thankful for a relaxed day where I didn’t spend most of the day thinking about all of the things that I still needed to do.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for something to read and realized I had never finished reading a series of books. I had gotten the first book when I worked at Borders in the late 1990’s. The author had visited the store and I had gotten an autographed copy of her book. The autographed book disappeared, I think my sister borrowed it and then lent it to someone else. Slightly disappointing but not a huge deal in the whole scope of life. A couple of years ago I found book two and three on Amazon but book four was out of print. Last year, Sully bought me a few books off of my Amazon wish list after some fairly stressful weeks. Book four was one of the books that he ordered, he’d found a like new copy from a third party seller but fulfilled by Amazon.

I just finished the last book in this series and decided I would share them with my peeps here.

You can find these books on Amazon. They are currently out of print but a lot of out of print books have popped up recently on Amazon, Alibris and eBay. I am not going to add detailed reviews, just my own short description.

Set in Scotland, this book is a great combination of romance, mystery, and legend. Although it is a regency romance, there is very little fussing and gossiping of the ton. Most of the story is spent in the highlands of Scotland. I enjoyed the book, even on the second run around.

White Magic is the second installment of the White Series. This story is about the brother of the main character in book one. Another regency romance, this time set in London amongst the watchful eyes of the ton. This story has romance, of course, but mystery, mistaken identity and some small touches of feminism and science. Overall, this was another entertaining read.

This book is connected to the first two by the friendship of the main character in book three to the brothers in the first books. This book is set in both London and Scotland, the story is almost more mystery than romance. This story also leads right into the last book of the series.

This story actually begins at the end of book 3, with the sister of that book’s main character. This book is filled with mystery, romance and centuries old Scottish legend. There are a few unexpected twists and turns that pay off well at the end of the book.

We were excited to see the changes to the entrance to California Adventure as well as the Carsland.

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Here is the Oswald gas station on Buena Vista Street.

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Carsland!

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The lines were crazy for the rides, 180 minutes for the Radiator Springs Racers. That’s 2.5 hours! I couldn’t believe anyone would wait that long. Crazy!

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I was really happy to see the buildings in Radiator Springs.

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After, wandering around Carsland we grabbed lunch, rode the Monsters Inc. ride, did some final shopping and then headed out towards Downtown Disney. We shopped at World of Disney, Build A Bear and then RideMakerz. Boo got a Disney Exclusive Pirate Bear at BaB and Sully got a Mater at RideMakerz.

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I titled this “All roads lead to Disneyland” because for some reason when we try to leave Anaheim we always get turned around and end up heading back to Disneyland. It’s literally happened the last five times we’ve left Anaheim. Even using the GPS we’ve had issues, so now we don’t trust it and we end up going the wrong way. Seriously, talk about second guessing yourself. I am making notes for next time.

We got to the beach a little before 10 in the morning. We actually had great luck finding parking, which is always good. It was nice and sunny, not too hot with a nice breeze coming in off of the water.

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We had a super fantastic lunch at Harbor Fish.

We had a super fantastic lunch at Harbor Fish.

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It’s a small place with tiny tables and benches but the food is fantastic and we were sitting about 20 yards from the ocean.

We spent today with my brother. After meeting at his house we left to go hike Iron Mountain with my brother and his wife. It was an abbreviated hike though, that thing on the top of my foot, muscle, tendon, bone??? was killing me every time we walked uphill. It turned out to be a good thing though because it was a little too warm for my brother’s dogs.

We had a great day and they will be meeting us at the beach tomorrow morning. Yay!

We had a fun day. Boo and I drove over to Gramma’s house and then we went to meet Sully forlunch. The food was great, it took forever for our order to arrive but the Jumbalaya pasta was quite tasty. After lunch we went shopping at the Disney Store Outlet for my great nephew’s 3rd birthday.

We made another stop on the way home at Walmart. We were looking to see if they had this groovy shirt in Sully’s size. They didn’t but we are going to check at another Walmart tomorrow. If we don’t find it there then I will see if I can’t order them online.

The best part of the day though was the great purchase I made on eBay. There’s some backstory here that needs to be told.

Back in December of 2005, I saw that a number of snowglobes on the Disney Store website were on sale. I had been looking at a Sleeping Beauty snowglobe all year. It was on sale for half price and I told Sully that I wanted it for Christmas. I ordered it along with a number of other things for Christmas presents and waited excitedly for the shipment to arrive. I was a bit disappointed when it never arrived. I don’t know if it was stolen from our doorstep or delivered to another house and they kept it. Sully thinks that the FedEx driver kept it.

I don’t blame him since we got a visit from the FedEx driver in February demanding that I sign a form stating that I had received all of the items. I told him no and he told me that he wouldn’t leave until I signed the form. I finally signed it but added my addendum to the form explaining that I never received the original shipment.

The Disney Store was very cool and replaced all of the items except the snowglobe which was out of stock by the time FedEx got everything straightened out.

I was incredibly bummed about the lost shipment and after that I was pretty freaked out about any and all shipments that came after. Over the last several years, I’ve looked on and off at eBay and Amazon for the snowglobe. About three years ago, I found one on eBay that had been damaged. Sully said no, he wanted to find one that was in good condition. Back in May I found another snowglobe on eBay but the price was set at $145. Sully told me to buy it but I couldn’t get myself to pay that much for it. I was hoping it would not sell and be re-listed for a lower price. Apparently someone bought it right before the eBay sale ended. Luckily, I didn’t buy it because at the beginning of last week I found one that was stated as ‘new in box. Never taken out of box.’ The bidding had started at $0.99 and was up to about $16 when I started watching. I waited until the last minute and made a super high bid and won the auction. I was so excited, I felt like I was going to cry.